The General's Game: A Galileo Gambit?

There is a popular saying in Malayalam, yours truly’s native lingo that says piquantly something like this: An areca nut/betel nut can be hidden in the folds of one’s lap, but not an areca nut palm.

VKS Episode:

The recent VKSingh Pandora’s Box opening gesture has been precisely along this line.

Till recently the Indian armed forces, for a civilian like yours truly, had a romantic halo about them, the army in particular! It was comparable in the language of taste buds to the idiosyncratic pleasure of reading some Chinese food names obtained through PC translation like “Gambolling dragon and playing phoenix” for stir fried prawns and chicken! This halo has been lost once and for all as a result of the VKS Episode, which was interpreted as a deliberately-staged Galileo Gambit of sorts.

Never heard of Galileo Gambit, dear kids?

Well, it’s an expression that means that the more a person is vilified the more in the right he is believed to be.

This whole episode of the VKS whizzing off a letter to the PM and it getting leaked to the media has brought a ton of bricks—or brickbats—on the iron-grey haired general ,as a result of which more and more Indians have started saying that he is in the right and that the minister is in the wrong.

The Stark Truth:

Its now evident that the General was NOT playing a gambit at all but merely doing his duty to perfection.

As Ms Vidya Subramaniam says in her illuminating write-up, “an Army Chief writing to the Prime Minister is Standard Procedure in the Army....The letters termed by the forces as routine are usually written at six monthly intervals and give an account of shortcomings in order that the executive be kept fully informed on India’s defence preparedness.”

This was the truth that got snowballed through collective political camaraderie –in the iconoclastic urge to damage of course —into the present scandal.

The Deep throat in Hiding:

It’s also evident today that the General did not have anything to do with the leakage. My guess is that the PMO staff ---or the Defence Ministry staff after the General had informed Antony about it by letter ----did it or the messenger if it was sent by person through a civilian.

I say this with good reason. Many peons and clerks of a government office have the nasty habit of playing Peeping Tom over the letters that reach their head official, and often xerox it in the lunch recess without the head knowing anything about it all~!

Or some media sleuth has bribed his or her way into the Defence Ministry at an odd moment! [This is happening all the time as I know from watching English news channels of the country]

The RDX Formula

Any ordinary incident can be blown up 1000X and then heavily politicized, garnished with choice ingredients like a fertile imagination and the ajino moto ingredient-the popular urge to do damage the icons—and then re-served on a platter as if its the truth. It has the same explosive force of a kilo of RDX detonated remotely in a crowded market !

Come to think of it, Indian politics presents a comic view not only in the deliciously romantic names of the individual parties—strongly redolent of the eccentric names given to dishes in a Chinese restaurant like “four happy meatballs”, “drunken shrimp” or “chicken without sex”—but also in the skits they keep themselves alive by playing up to the unending entertainment of the Indian people. The Indian Army is not actually an integral component of this political melodrama being played out in 4 theatres--the couple of parliament halls, the PM and the party chief’s residence in the main--- but it can’t altogether escape the tentacles of the insidious cancer fully too. So it was that General VK

Singh was dragged into a politicized controversy recently.

I would like to call this episode the “Ides of March” with sound intention and with the following reasons;

· This single episode opened a huge can or barrel of worms ,whose stench reaches the PM and the President, and also brought out into the open the incompetence of the Defence Minister,

· The classic Pontius Pilate hand-washing gesture of the PM, the puritanical stance of the Army Chief and

· The chronic tendency of those in the government to stand their ground for a while and then suddenly give up further effort!. [Of course the UPA has a specific style: it begins with words like advice, proposal, suggestion etc but a week later they ripen into statutory and obligatory invariably!]

· - If the UPA ministry—whose public credibility is teetering near zero today-- still remains in power it is simply because the Constitution of India doesn’t provide for such an eventuality and because the President of India doesn’t have the right to dismiss it at once for the crime of having hushed it up till now!

· It is the first time that a government-employed official is turning against the government with a charge of corruption, official clumsiness, and crass incompetence so humongous sand so well substantiated that the ministry can but hope for sleepless nights hereafter!

· The inevitable inferences from this episode—fit for a Bollywood pot boiler with a duckling Antony and a sulking UPA-- are a bunch of painful self-queries: “How much longer we will be an independent nation? Is the country being systematically being ruined election after election by the same party? Shall we have to boycott the 2014 elections to register our national protest at this systematic destruction?”

The media comments about this are so damning and vituperative of the UPA and the Defence Minister that they had better kill themselves; Listen to some fo them any way, dear kids! Listen to four of them!

“Each and every person along with their family members in PMO, all Ministries and the Government must be raided and investigated compulsorily since they joined first.” (H., Mumbai)

“The focus should be on investigating whether the Army Chief is right and on identifying and punishing the crooks that have run off with the taxpayer's money and facilitated the purchase of equipment of poor quality, if this is indeed the case. It could be that no action would have been taken against these criminals if there had been no leak. Following the leak, due to public pressure some action will be taken, in the fullness of time”(Sammy Brighton, UK)

“Mr. A.K. Anthony has no right or business to ridicule, denigrate, decry, denounce, de-motivate, & demoralize the brave, courageous, aggressively nationalistic & uncompromisingly patriotic soldier members of the Indian Army, Navy & Air Force & denounce them, including the presently serving, highly distinguished, incorruptible, & able India’s Chief of Army Staff Vijay Kumar Singh as anti-national” (Suresh BV Bhardwaj, B’lore)

“If we co relate all issued raised by the General we will get a clear idea. The age problem, bribe charge and the secret documents are pointing to one point, the disgruntlement of the General. The General has completed 42 years service. His DOB is shown as 1951 in his father's record and 1950 as the record furnished by the General himself” (Ramanathan AR, B’lore)

It’s generally believed –and it’s absolutely true- that the General in question-VKS—is a classic army man, clipped and crisp in his talk and stances only on specific long-standing issues. I also understand from a published interview by a journalist that

· The accusation that he leaked the letter –to shame India before the BRICS nations at their New Delhi Summit--is unsupported with any witness or proof

· He is neither devious or a rogue by any means, and gives straightforward answers to specific questions by temperament and training. He is focused on the Army only to the exclusion of anything and everything else that distracts politicians. [Cf His reply to the journalist’s ostensibly casual query”I’m concerned with and will talk about openly my organization”.]

· - He doesn’t spill with unspilled secrets at all and likes to leave issues that can be safely ignored if not at national peril. This indicates a maturity that is more than that of the politicians of this country.

· His personal probity and dedication to his cleaning/sanitizing pursuits brought upon him the controversy about his birth date, as is natural with such high integrity persons happening to be harnessed in a service that has been eaten hollow by corrupt elements.

The Ruminant/Chew-the-Cud Art of Skewing Truth:

Can you, dear kids, change sugar into sand in three steps or milk into deadly cyanide? No!

Can you turn truth into a black lie? No?

Just as many Indians here can in regard to private vices or family skeletons int he cupboard, Indian politicians can do this by chewing the cud—the topic under discussion-- again and again , adding party colour and personal flavour each time, needed re-heating, sautéing in party belief oil and re-boiling a theme or topic.

After all, the UPA is your and my make too; we happen to be a deeply self-deluded and hypocritical people riven with equally deep prejudices, closed mind spaces, emotional hungers, and the infectious habit of playing party politics and wild notions!

We are blindly neglecting a fact that politicians didn't drop from the sky, they are the product of the society which is already rusted by corruption and immoral attitude.

No comparison with a democracy like the US ,which according to Chibukula Upendra of New Jersey is “a country that truly represents meritocracy in all its glory. It doesn’t matter what one’s race, colour or ethnicity is in America. Everyone is given a chance to perform”[And we—with shameful birth-based reservation, promotion, elevation etc on the one hand and frank denial of jobs to the eligible and truly worthy on that basis thump our chests comparing ourselves to US! Bah! What are we but at best a Cockney Democracy?]

This chewing-the-cud-till-it-is-som- ething-else is what happened to VKS’s honest person-to person-and strictly one-to-one revelation about the army’s present day deficiencies in equipment too. The bribe news hit the Parliament and the audiovisual channels of this country ,as Vidya says, “like an avalanche”;thereafter our motor mouth commentators and politicians took it up to chew repeatedly –and processing and ‘cooking’ it with their saliva all the while--all through the week. The accuser became the accused in this manner; but this kind of smearing is having classic historical antecedents too.

Smear-Campaign Style Political Commentary

If our politicians do it merely to pass the time in idle chewing like another stick of liquorice—even though those behind the Adarsh scam and equipment lobbyists had their vested interests to jealously protect against VKS’s come clean policy and so raised the bogey of birth date controversy--, those that sent ancient prophets an truth revealers to their undeserved deaths did so out of vested interests and motives. Jesus was accused of baselessly misleading the people by claiming tob e a King of the Jews, and Joan was burnt at the stake for claiming to communicate with the Archangels.

The Naiveté of Our People:

If you bother to analyze the general lifestyle and trends of the people of this country the single thing that strikes you with awe is the very simplicity of our babies in the wood- sorry, our 1.2 billion people! Even Chanakya might have been a simple Brahmin living his life out with benefices and offering to deities had he not been put into challenging situations by Destiny!

The wily politicians of this country have seen through this naiveté to our eternal shame!

So they cold-bloodedly and most unforgivably—since its is criminal form of monopolizing governmental power through dishonest stratagems—to confuse the relatively textbook-clear open-and shut case of the Army Chief communicating with the PM in his Office about the state of preparedness of the Army under him. Similar communications take place all the time between the Chiefs of Air Staff and Navy also with the PM.

In reality there is absolutely nothing to lather up in all this. Our Machiavellian politicians alone deserve the credit for doing this Houdini!

AND we Indians took the bait since we too have this Pharisee-Sadducee instinct of bear-baiting and bull fighting with persons among the chosen few and if possible sending them to their graves!!

Neither Anthony nor any other Minister has said anything about the allegations.

The Eleventh Commandment:

Party or the Individual Party Member: which or who is the superior entity?

The Grandmother party was the only strong one in 1947,but regional set-ups exploited the internal weaknesses of the Congress and the long much-addled interregnum to pose as full-blooded parties themselves and dug in with regional support as a vicarious means to gain their private, caste-based, often anti-national and anti democratic ends. The EC came into being at a belated hour when it could no longer order these pressure groups to get dismantled with a caveat.

Once a Central ministry was set up, the PM –often a square peg himself/ herself--owed it to himself/herself to find suitable persons to head different ministries.

If you analyze post-1947 history of Indian administration you can find dozens of such square pegs pushed unceremoniously into round holes for which they which they had never been designed at all, one of the recent tragic ones being Rajiv Gandhi who would have been alive at this moment had he been a happily married pilot hubby of Sonia!

Finding such human ‘pegs’; tailor-made personality-wise to fit the ministerial ‘holes’ has been all along a mission next to impossible.MMS found Antony to head Defence this way, and not after counterchecking if the latter knew anything at all about the demons in it!

Such unintelligent, idiotic and counter-productive posting principle is the Eleventh Commandment, heard and burnt deep into the clay tablet only in this country by the Moses aka Ruling Party!

Nowhere else in the world are such postings ever made or even thought of.

In the present murky issue., the Defence Minister –(How much does this man know of the army when compared with VK Singh, pray? Nothing at all!

Is he an expert on the Navy or Air force in some manner, pray? Not at all!

What does he know well? Playing politics! Is that a qualification? No!

Then why was he appointed? Because he was Mr. Clean!

Bah!

Anthony is simply making pledges that are abstract as all politicians do. All they are trying to do is avoid commenting on the specific concerns raised in the letter. That shows, at least to us, that the concerns are most likely correct. Give Anthony the boot first before any other action. We need efficient leaders not Anthonys.

Result of national Confusion:

Questions were raised as a result of such chewing the cud on the channels and in print media about the Army Chief and his character too, predominant among which were the following:

· Why did he not hand over the bribe giver to the police?

· Why did he refuse to blacklist the corporate firm (Tatra Sipox/Vectra) that had supplied the trucks?

· Hasn’t it been customary of previous Army Chiefs merely to go along with the mainstream current? If so which motives drive this Army Chief to swim against the prevailing current (of mutual Tweedledum-Tweedledee official back-scratching in A-Z of corrupt deals)?

· Why did the General not act on the “Mr Clean” Defence Minister’s Advice?(Was it not the Defence Minister himself that had the authority to act against a retired general?

About the Def Minister too ,a question was raised.

Why did Antony choose to forget the revelation made by none other then the Army Chief reputed for his “100% army material” quality and mettle?

Regional Goblins:

India has been politically done in—repeat done in—literally by the hundreds of regional pressure groups and dug-in vested interests we have across the country arrogating the label “party” to themselves.

These vested interests have ranged from A to Z: caste, sub caste (E.g. SP and RJD) , agricultural traders(E.g. NCP)and many others.

No screening test has been performed to be sure they are a full-fledged party at all such as :

i. What is their national vision?

ii. What is the mission objective towards which they are inclined?

iii. What are the staple points raised in their manifesto?

iv. Who is the chief? Where does he hail from? Who are his ancestors? Is he a migrant?

v. With which side organizations are they clandestinely associated?

vi. Any banned organizations/foreign nations with which they are linked by any chance?

vii. Where do they derive their funds from ?

viii. Which class (E.g., traders) supports them to gain their own ends?

ix. What are their private and strictly personal interests?

x. Has any SWOT analysis been done on these persons as potential candidates?

xi. What percentage of parliamentary worth does the person have to contest in an election?

xii. What percentage of eligibility to be legislators in home state?

xiii. Eventually will they harm the nation of India or help it move forward?

The EC:

The beast-man animate-inanimate Sphinx that the Election Commission has always tended to be it has given in to their persistent demands and let them compete to parliament too.

Conclusion:

Lets assess the General’s gambit as another revealing, mutely eloquent symptom of the India Syndrome, not as a Galileo Gambit to angle for fame!

India Syndrome is like murder; it will out sometime as you know!

India Syndrome—a real Gordian Knot I can tell you since unravelling it is not easy- developed with more than quite visible symptoms that you and I can see at first glance from OUTSIDE this country—some of which are:

· A sprawling grandma ruling party set up with only mouthpieces, not individualistic individuals

· Opiate religions keeping the people dosed and dazed as Lotos Eaters

· A horribly weak Opposition with zero national vision

· Spiritualism peddlers soothing persons in discomfort in lieu of giving them an action plan to change their fortunes

· Ill educated politicians and a largely misguided village audience

· Weak internally splintered government machine pretending to work towards some target

· Wholly corrupt officialdom eating away the allocations

· A non questioning mindset at grass root level

· A dug-in well-oiled machinery to ‘silence’ whistle-blowing ‘lambs’ anywhere int he country with the local police looking away by contract!

Taskmaster TIME!

TIME provides the most appropriate and unforgettable answers to both individual and national stupidization drives in varied formats and through various voices.

All fools—and foolish nations too-- learn from firsthand experience too in general. Indian society would certainly have become a truly prog4ress oriented casteless society long ago unless it was for the Indian Syndrome which got watered and fertilized by the ruling party and the parties in the opposition over many decades.

Mandalization alone divided the nation into two big groups at a single ‘coup de grace’ with a Samurai sword—the reserved and the unreserved.

India lost hope at that time. Never again did she retrieve her hopes as she had nurtured before then. Our youth is ambitious and will find a way out of this impasse surely—at least because they love their own lives far too much--but whether a totally bloodless revolution can be the answer that they will find remains an open question! You see a single knot can be unravelled but once too many single knots combine to comprise a virtually knotty and challenging Gordian knot needs Alexander’s single step solution—a surgical slice with the sword!

I hope India 2050 will survive the present day India Syndrome through some drastic remedies and learn to practice and perform in tune with a cleaner political style, and shall be peopled with more no-nonsense people at large too that refuse to get swayed too easily with empty open ended promises, and will look at the need to go forward monolithically and harmoniously as a single entity aka India!

Please think carefully over what we have discussed so far today and discuss those points among your colleagues too. A participatory democracy needs well informed and well motivated population. Come tomorrow as usual to take up the question of weeding in our bureaucracy!

Jai Hind!

[Ref: The Galileo gambit, or Galileo fallacy, is the notion that if you are vilified for your ideas, you must be right. It refers to Galileo Galileo's famous persecution at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church for his defence of heliocentrism in the face of the orthodox Biblical literalism of the day. People use this argument repeatedly in response to serious criticisms that more often than not they just don't understand.

In "reality", taking up the mantle of Galileo requires not just that you are scorned by the establishment but also that you are correct. They really do forget the part where they have to prove themselves right in order to be like Galileo.